From awootten at NRAO.EDU Tue Dec 5 09:55:59 2000 From: awootten at NRAO.EDU (Al Wootten) Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 09:55:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] Project Book Message-ID: <200012051455.JAA24531@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Folks, For the first time, there is an entry for every item in the ALMA Project Book at http://www.tuc.nrao.edu/~demerson/almapbk/construc/cons_toc.htm Darrel and the rest of us are in the process of finding inconsistencies and problems; please take the opportunity of examining chapters of interest to you and suggesting problems which might be remedied, as this version will be frozen sometime next week. We can discuss this at the ASAC Meeting next Monday. Please also send me agenda items you would like to see addressed. Clear skies, Al +--------------------------------------------------------+ | Alwyn Wootten (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/) | | Project Scientist, Atacama Large Millimeter Array/US | | Astronomer, National Radio Astronomy Observatory | | 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475, USA | | (804)-296-0329 voice Help us build The ALMA| | (804)-296-0278 FAX {> {> {> {> | +----------------------------------^-----^-----^-----^---+ From cwhite at NRAO.EDU Tue Dec 5 15:59:32 2000 From: cwhite at NRAO.EDU (Carolyn White) Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 15:59:32 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] [almanews] ALMA Memos Released Message-ID: ALMA Memo #334 - Revision 1 Refined Position of ALMA Equipment on Chajnantor, Mauna Kea, and the South Pole Simon J. E. Radford and Richard A. Chamberlin December 2000 Measurements of the 225 GHz atmospheric transparency with functionally identical tipping radiometers at Mauna Kea, the South Pole, and Chajnantor indicate periods of excellent observing conditions at all three sites. Conditions at Chajnantor and the South Pole are better than at Mauna Kea. The first quartile zenith transparency at Chajnantor and the South Pole are roughly equal. During the best conditions at Chajnantor, however, the zenith transparency is better than during the best conditions at the South Pole. View a PDF version of ALMA Memo #334 - Revision 1. http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma334/memo334-1.pdf Download a postscript version of ALMA Memo #334 - Revision 1. http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma334/memo334.ps -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALMA Memo #338 The Best Sites for the Compact ALMA Configuration Bryan Butler, Simon Radford, and Angel Otarola December 2000 We present considerations involved in finding the best location for the compact (maximum antenna separation <~ 200 m) ALMA configuration on the science preserve. Several candidate locations for the compact configuration are then suggested. Note that we distinguish here between the compact ALMA configuration and the so-called ``Atacama Compact Array'' (or ACA) which is a separate collection of smaller antennas. We do not consider the placement of the ACA in this memo. Download a PDF version (9 MB) of ALMA Memo #338 http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma338/memo338.pdf Download a postscript version (16 MB) of ALMA Memo #338 http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma338/memo338.ps -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALMA Memo #339 Aspects of the Antennas for the ALMA Compact Array (ACA) Jacob W.M. Baars The Atacama Compact Array (ACA) will supplement ALMA in order to provide the "missing spacings" in the uv-plane coverage, caused by the finite size of and the minimum distance between the elements of ALMA. ACA will consists of about a dozen small antennas of a diameter between 6 and 8 m. In this Memo I consider a number of aspects related to the antennas. After reviewing the basic requirements on the antennas, I look in some detail on the possibilities of using the ALMA antenna mounting for the ACA dishes. Minimizing the "collision radius" to enable close packing is important for the ACA. I suggest a straw man ACA antenna consisting of a 7 m diameter reflector with a short focal length (F/D = 0.3) on an ALMA mounting. A number of points for further study is listed. Download a PDF version (9 MB) of ALMA Memo #339 http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma339/memo339.pdf Download a postscript version (16 MB) of ALMA Memo #339 http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma339/memo339.ps ============================================================================= ALMAnews is a broadcast service. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo at nrao.edu with "unsubscribe almanews" in the message body. From awootten at NRAO.EDU Thu Dec 7 15:35:06 2000 From: awootten at NRAO.EDU (Al Wootten) Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 15:35:06 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] ALMA Science Advisory Committee TeleConference 11 December 2000 Message-ID: <200012072035.PAA16395@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Dear ASAC Member: I have placed a tentative agenda including proposed subjects at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/asac/asacdec00agenda.html There are several items which you should read for the discussion of this very full agenda. Clear skies, Al From awootten at NRAO.EDU Mon Dec 11 09:48:21 2000 From: awootten at NRAO.EDU (Al Wootten) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 09:48:21 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] New agenda material Message-ID: <200012111448.JAA18817@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Folks After the close of business last week I received new material relating to the ACA design from Koh-Ichiro Morita. This morning I received material from Stephane on this, which did not propagate to the list owing to its length. I have placed copies of these linked to the agenda. I have placed the agenda including proposed subjects at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/asac/asacdec00agenda.html There are several items which you should read for the discussion of this very full agenda. I apologize for the late notice for some of these! Clear skies, Al +--------------------------------------------------------+ | Alwyn Wootten (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/) | | Project Scientist, Atacama Large Millimeter Array/US | | Astronomer, National Radio Astronomy Observatory | | 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475, USA | | (804)-296-0329 voice Help us build The ALMA| | (804)-296-0278 FAX {> {> {> {> | +----------------------------------^-----^-----^-----^---+ From crutcher at astro.uiuc.edu Mon Dec 11 11:07:18 2000 From: crutcher at astro.uiuc.edu (Richard Crutcher) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 10:07:18 -0600 Subject: [asac] proposed polarization statement for minutes In-Reply-To: <200012111448.JAA18817@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Message-ID: The ASAC is concerned that the Project Book does not specifically address how ALMA hardware and software will permit meeting polarization science goals defined by the ASAC. The ASAC believes that a comprehensive solution to enable ALMA polarization should be included expeditiously in the Project Book. ------------------- Richard M. Crutcher Professor & Chair, Astronomy Department Chief Application Scientist, NCSA University of Illinois 1002 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 Voice: 217/333-9581 Fax: 217/244-7638 From awootten at NRAO.EDU Mon Dec 11 12:17:17 2000 From: awootten at NRAO.EDU (Al Wootten) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 12:17:17 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] forwarded message from Stephane Guilloteau Message-ID: <200012111717.MAA22249@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Stephane writes: 'Here is a brief status of our work on the Atacama Compact Array simulations. Stephane' Folks. The mailer did not stomach the large file, so I have put it into pdf format on my WWW site. Please read "http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/asac/aca-1.pdf 'Advance of Alma simulation at IRAM' by F. Gueth, S. Guilloteau, R. Moreno and J. Pety considering ALMA simulations. This is a very impressive simulation tool. Al From cwhite at NRAO.EDU Tue Dec 12 08:52:14 2000 From: cwhite at NRAO.EDU (Carolyn White) Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 08:52:14 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] [almanews] ALMA Memo 340 Released Message-ID: ALMA Memo #340 Measurements of Commercial Vacuum Windows for ALMA Bands 3 and 6 G. A. Ediss, S.-K. Pan, J. Effland, and T. Globus December 05, 2000 The measurements made here confirm those made by the manufacturer of the QMC100 (ALMA band 3) and QMC230 (ALMA band 6) windows, and show that the in-band loss (absorption and reflection) of the windows is of order of 2-5% over the whole band. Thus, at least one commercial source has been found for vacuum windows for ALMA receivers. The manufacturer believes that they can supply similar windows for all ALMA bands. View a PDF version of ALMA Memo #340 at http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma340/memo340.pdf Download a postscript version of ALMA Memo #340 from http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma340/memo340.ps ============================================================================= ALMAnews is a broadcast service. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo at nrao.edu with "unsubscribe almanews" in the message body. From awootten at NRAO.EDU Thu Dec 14 15:42:40 2000 From: awootten at NRAO.EDU (Al Wootten) Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 15:42:40 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] Feb. 23-24 Face-to-Face ASAC Meeting in Florence Message-ID: <200012142042.PAA27979@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Folks Apropos the discussion at our meeting on Monday: ------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Feb. 23-24 Face-to-Face ASAC Meeting in Florence All ASAC members were encouraged to make their reservations for this meeting by December 15. M. Walmsley will provide a list of those who have registered for the meeting. Other meetings in Feb-March were also mentioned. S. Guilloteau expects several participants from the ASAC at the Configuration PDR in Grenoble on 25-26 Feb. Results from simulations and imaging studies will be available. It was commented that operational studies should also be done in preparation for that meeting. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I am redistributing the information Malcolm sent earlier: Dear Interested Participants in the ASAC Face-to-face meeting, This concerns those interested in attending the Florence face-to-face meeting of the ALMA ASAC on Feb 23-24. We have reserved for this meeting the "Sala Bargello" of the "Convitto della Calza" , Piazza della Calza 6, close to the Porta Romana on the south-western corner of the Florence city walls. This is within walking distance of the Florence city center and all the tourist attractions. We have had some problems organising hotel rooms for the meeting. We first thought that the rooms within the Convitto itself would be available and that turned out eventually not to be the case. We have therefore made a pre--reservation of blocks of rooms in two neighbouring hotels : the "Hotel Classic" on Viale Machiavelli and the Pensione Annalena on Via Romana. The charges per night are of the order US$ 100 for the Hotel Classic and $125 for the Pensione Annalena. We need to know fairly soon how many people intend to come and therefore request you to send us a statement of intent using the "form" attatched below. We want this preliminary information prior to Dec. 15 . Those who send us this information will be assigned a hotel and requested to contact the hotels directly by Fax sending credit card information etc. Those who do not reply are warned that they will be subject to the wild and wooly struggle with the Florence hotel booking system. This can be fun but we leave it to you. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Name : Affiliation : e-mail : Fax : Telephone : I intend to attend the Florence face-to-face meeting of the ALMA ASAC on February 23-24 2001. I would like a room reserved as follows: Single : Yes Double : Yes Other : Explain Date of Arrival : Date of Departure: Send to masini at arcetri.astro.it and walmsley at arcetri.astro.it ------------------------------------------------------------------- From awootten at NRAO.EDU Mon Dec 18 09:13:59 2000 From: awootten at NRAO.EDU (Al Wootten) Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 09:13:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: [asac] Participants at the ASAC face-to-fac Message-ID: <200012181413.JAA01914@polaris.cv.nrao.edu> Folks, Malcolm has sent me this useful tabulation of responses. Please look it over for correctness. List Of Participants at the ASAC face-to-face in Florence Feb 23-4 -------------------------------------------------------------- Name S/D Arrrival Departure Baars S 22 25 Bachiller S 21 25 Baudry D 23 26 Blake S 22 25 Bronfman D 21 27 (+ Daughter) Brown D 21 27 Cox S 22 24 Crutcher S 22 26 De Vos S 23 25 Emerson S 22 26? Evans S 22 26 GuilloteauS 22 25 Gurwell S 22 25 Hasegawa S 22 25 Ishiguro S 21 25 Kurz D 22 25 Matsuo S 22 25 Nakai S 22 25 Rafal D 22 25 Richer D 22 25 Sakamoto S 22 25 Scoville S 21 25(?) Shaver D 22 25 (Sing first two nights) Tatematsu S 22 25 Van Dishoeck S 22 25 Wilson S 19 25 Welch S 22 24 Wild S 22 25 Wootten S 22 25 Yun D 22 25 ------------------------------------------------- Season's best, Al